THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Marvel has been known to have some misfires in the 2000s that are just too embarrassing to talk about. One in particular I find myself shocked about of its poor quality is Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
PLOT
The 2007 sequel follows Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic & Susan Storm/Invisible Woman preparing for their own wedding amidst a media circus. What is happening in the buildup of the public event is that a meteor like object enters Earth’s atmosphere to cause mysterious crates and cause flexes in weather & power outages when tracing cosmic energy. When General Hager finds Reed in the middle of his bachelor party, he shares what’s going on with him and asks him to build a machine to track its movements. Reed does it but under Sue’s nose to have her believe he’s 100% focused on the wedding. On the day of what’s supposed to be their special day, it goes far from planned as the phenomenon passes through New York which causes a power outage, destroys Richards’ device and ruins the event. Sue’s brother Johnny/Human Torch pursues it and discovers it up close to be a silver skinned humanoid that rides a flying surfboard, in which he is quickly nicknamed the ‘Silver Surfer’. When getting too close though, he is overpowered and gets taken past the planet’s atmosphere only to be dropped until landing in a desert. When returning home, Johnny explains what he saw but the trouble doesn’t stop there because the physical contact he made with the surfer set his molecular structure in passive flux where he’ll swap powers with his teammates upon physical contact. With the wedding ruined again due to the constant drama as a superteam, Sue feels fed up with the fact she’ll never have a life normal enough to raise children. Wanting to make her happy, he vows to move out of Baxter Building and disband the team for both of their sakes after they deal with the surfer. Johnny overhears this and shares it with Ben Grimm/The Thing which leaves them both irritated, but the latter’s girlfriend Alicia Masters (Kerry Washington) insists to respect their decision. When another crater caused by the surfer occurs in London, the Fantastic Four do try to stop him from draining Thames but it would only be too late. The only thing they get to do at that moment is prevent London Eye from collapsing. Irritated of minimal progress, Hager does the unlikely in recruiting another to help, Victor Von Doom. The villain was originally frozen by the team after he tried to kill them. He’s now back from the dead due to the surfer’s energy passing over Latveria brought him back. He then shows footage of encountering him at Russell Glacier that confirms his powers come from the board, inspiring Reed to make a pulse generator that’ll separate him from it. They set up the trap at the Black Forest and there, the surfer reveals he has no choice because he serves to a higher power. Surprisingly, he protects Sue from a military attack ordered by Hager before she successfully uses the pulse against him. The surfer would then be taken to Siberia for torturous interrogation while the Four wait for what to come next. Sue secretly talks to him again and gets the needed follow-up questions on what he meant. He reveals that his birth name is Norrin Radd and serves for a cosmic entity called Galactus that feeds on planets to survive and the board is a live beacon that’ll guide him to Earth. He has been a servant for so long out of the sake of sparing his own planet and admits he protected her because she reminded him of one he loves. When She retails this to the team, Doom kills Hager and takes the board for himself to continue his previous evil doing ways. The Four escape with Radd with via Reed’s custom aircraft, the Fantasti-car and are able to track Doom down in Shanghai. It only leads to another fight and when the villain tries to kill the surfer with a spear he made out of physical matter, Sue intervenes and gets stabbed in the process. Knowing that he uses a wrist pad to connect himself to the board, Johnny uses the combined powers of the four temporarily to overpower him and disable the device. This gives Ben the chance to defeat him for good by knocking him into the harbor with a nearby crane. When reconnecting with the board, Radd uses his power to heal Sue before making his sacrifice to destroy Galactus with a massive blast of energy. Johnny almost goes with him for assistance but the shock of witnessing Galactus causes him to frightfully let go. With the threat being engulfed in a cosmic rift, it undoes Johnny’s passive flux that causes the power switch and Sue wakes up recovered from her injury. With the world safe, Sue & Reed agree to stay with the team as they part of their family. They then have their wedding in Shanghai, but celebrate it quickly to save Venice from sinking into the sea. The film ends in a mid credit cliffhanger that reveals Radd to survive his own sacrifice, floating around in space.
THOUGHTS
You know I actually enjoyed the first one for being well balanced on simplicity and entertaining I didn’t mind on another one. I just wish it was a good one though. Like many fans, I trusted Tim Story to direct another real good time, but the pacing is off the rails. 90 minutes is not enough to digest there’s a cosmic cloud of a planet water out there to defeat while also trying to have a wedding. I mean it should’ve around the 150 minute mark to flesh out everything. The visuals are honestly 50/50 because I wasn’t intimidated of Galactus being a cloud when he should’ve a tall humanoid roaming around in space like the comics depict him. Even the background location shots are visibly fake. I was into the guy of Johnny having all the powers when that was just a weird excuse to reference Super Skrull and the depiction of him having them all just doesn’t look cool to me. The true success of this movie goes to the overall look of the Surfer who looks just as we all imagined. With Doug Jones doing the motion capture, he’s able to become the character with ease. Hell, I respect the fact Julian McMahon chewed up the scenery as much as he did coming back, but it ain’t gonna excuse the poor delivery of Dr Doom. He does a lot of things to prove he can, but him taking the board for himself was the dumbest thing he can do. He’s so caught up being happy to be alive that he continues making a stupid decision to think he can live without consequence which bites him in the ass big time when he gets taken down again. I regularly enjoy Andre Braugher in anything, but I couldn’t stand him as Hager. He feels like a carbon copy of Thaddeus Ross from Hulk because he doesn’t care the way he should and gets too obsessive in weaponry. And off of that, he’s uptight towards Reed for not seeing eye to eye. It was a surprise when he died, but I would’ve cared more if he wasn’t a prick. The only reason I’m able to finish the damn thing rather than turn it off is because I still tolerate the solid chemistry done by the core cast. Ioan Gruffudd & Jessica Alba are quite believable as the super couple trying to find balance in their lives and have to accept things won’t always go according to plan. Reed has a hard time slowing things down with work in order to give proper focus to Sue which shouldn’t sound a lot, but the duty as a superhero has been such an overload it can’t be possible the way they both wish and meeting the surfer was their reminder of it. Ironically, Sue’s dilemma inspires her to tell Radd to stand up for himself which pays off big time. Besides Jones’ motion capture, Laurence Fishburne was a great choice for the voiceover. With each line, you’re able to understand he’s someone who is quite capable of an individual but is acting out of fear because he’s thinking of everyone he cares for before himself. Once he remembered who he was fighting for, he became motivated to cut himself from an attachment he never needed to be a part of. Since he survived his own attempted sacrifice, it’s safe to say he’ll go home with all his thanks to the team who embrace change. Chris Evans does give an interesting predicament where he doesn’t feel focused after failing to have any kind of a advantage against something he saw as a threat. That was interesting, but then I get lost with the fact he starts feeling lonely to the fact he envies Ben having somebody, encouraging himself to pursue Captain Frankie Raye (Beau Garrett). That was so dumb to watch due to how it nowhere, as he invited her to the wedding and burns the bouquet to prevent her catching it from Sue. If he was so afraid, he would’ve not done that. I did get a laugh though when he was in Thing form because that felt like once in a lifetime to see. Moving on, Michael Chiklis did a good job showing the Thing who is past his pessimism and is proud of who he is to the point where he can have banter with Johnny. I just wish there was more time for everyone to be truly appreciated because the short runtime led to so many plot points that have not made any sense since. If I can start from the top, why did the girls leave so fast after taking pictures with Johnny? I know it’s funny for him to eavesdrop on Reed & Sue and criticize how they show affection, but it’s way more believable if he’s still hanging out with them by the time he jumps in on the conversation. I even thought it was weird of a continuity error for the woman to disappear by the time Ben sits only for her to return by the time they’re already in the air. I saw no point in that at all man. And I don’t see why Reed would tell Johnny of all people about the anomalies related to the surfer? I know we got to know he’s a multitasker, but it’s way more believable if he told Ben because he actually tries to be interested compared to the brother in-law. And it’s kinda crazy for Reed to make the machine when he doesn’t want to Sue to know, yet he gets a head start out in the open and is able to bring it inside with/without Ben’s help. I don’t even believe Johnny heard Reed at the rooftop while he was still flying because it didn’t look like he had bluetooth on him to hear him. The same can be said when Reed tries taking to Doom while airborne. Also, what exactly convinced Hager to book Victor for help? He knows what happened between him & the Four and doesn’t seem to see the footage of his encounter with Radd until the Four accept his help and see it as well. I mean talk about winging it because he had no good reason to reach out to him of all people. And why does it look like Sue doesn’t get involved in making the pulse generator. If she went to MIT, I don’t see an excuse for her to not get more involved before telling Reed to relax and telling Vic to be more involved. I also think Hager should've been more concerned on Doom’s lack of involvement in making said device when not only Reed noticed, but Sue caught him lacking as well. That’s the biggest red flag and it’s ridiculous how clueless he was. Hell, the Four should’ve also pointed out to Hager how suspicious it was for Doom to be the first one there when Radd goes down. I even think it’s so stupid how there’s no cameras around to warn Hager that Sue’s talking to the surfer without him. I mean that’s asking to lose an advantage. It was admittedly another cool visual for Radd to show visual proof of Galactus from his own chest, but I don’t even think that should be possible after being separated from the board. I don’t know how anyone can ignore all said issues to get casual enjoyment. To wrap up, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is one of the worst superhero movies ever made for failing to be creative every time it tried and I wish good luck for all kinds of fans who give it a chance.
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